Formaldehyde Air Levels in some Hospital Mortuaries in Benin City

This study was conducted to measure the air level of formaldehyde in some selected hospital mortuaries in Benin City. The mortuaries included a Teaching hospital mortuary, General hospital mortuary and Private hospital mortuary respectively. The mortuaries served as the test groups while Staff offices who had no connection with the mortuary or formaldehyde served as the control. Measurement of formaldehyde air level was carried out using a formaldehyde gas meter (EXTECH FM 200) which also gave measurement of the room temperature and relative humidity. Statistical analysis was done using Graph pad prism version 5.0. Result was presented as Mean ± SEM. Analysis of Variance was used to compare the means of test and control values while post hoc test was done using Student Newman Keul's test and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result shows a significantly higher formaldehyde air levels in the Teaching hospital mortuary, General hospital mortuary and Private hospital mortuary when compared with the control. There was a higher room temperature in the General hospital mortuary and Private hospital mortuary when compared with the control while there was a higher relative humidity in the Teaching hospital mortuary. Formaldehyde air levels recorded in all three mortuaries exceeded the acceptable and prescribed limit and it was therefore concluded that measures should be taken to ensure reduction of formaldehyde air levels in our hospital mortuaries in order to protect the Pathologists and Morticians who work in such environment, from the harmful effect of formaldehyde.

Key Words: formaldehyde, mortuaries, limit, air level, morticians